As a Belgian living in Austria, any soccer game between a Belgian and an Austrian team is of course something special. Yesterday's Champions League match between SK Rapid Wien and Club Brugge was about as special as it gets, because Club is my favourite Belgian team and Rapid is my favourite Austrian team. So I just had to see this match live. It was the fifth soccer match I attended in Austria (all but one of them featuring Rapid), and the fourth in the Ernst Happel stadion. Unlike the previous occasions, the stadion was sold out. It's a special feeling when an entire stadion (50 000 people) is shouting the Rapid Rituals ("helge" - "PAYER", "danke" - "BITTE").
Rapid was the more dangerous team during the first half of the game. They created several good chances, but failed to put the ball into the nets. Most of the chances where counter-attacks, which were executed with speed but lacked precision in the moment of truth. Brugge on the other hand played the ball around and around, slowing down and trying to move the players into ideal positions. Which happened too seldomly for my tastes. There was a moment when the ball seemed to have passed the goal line into the Belgian goal, but the referee didn't award a goal. I think part of the ball was over the goal line, but it really happened too fast for me to see if the ball was completely over the line or not. I have yet to see a video of that phase.
The second half of the game started with a couple more dangerous chances for Rapid, but the Austrian boys grew tired or perhaps dispirited. Brugge started to dominate more and more, to be more aggressive. The best chances where for Brugge then and at the stroke of the 75th minute, just when the Rapid fans were about to start the Rapidviertelstunde (a loud clapping session 15 minutes before the end of the game) Balaban went into a duel with Rapid's goalkeeper Payer. Next thing I knew the ball was laying in the goal. 0-1 for Brugge! I jumped out and shouted out my joy - only after a couple of seconds did I realize that I was sitting in a sector full of Rapid people! Nothing happened, though - most Rapid fans are peaceful people. And yes, Andreas, I still have all my teeth! The last 15 minutes plus 3 minutes overtime saw some desperate attempts of Rapid and a couple of counters from Brugge, but no further goals.